Like I said in my New Years Resolutions, I was going to start cooking for the family every time I visit them. This starts now. (Actually, it started last July.) After sending the menu to my mother, we settled on the tomato pesto fettuccine with seared steak.
The appetizer course was the grilled lettuce salad. This one came together rather uneventfully. Except instead of using a Bartlett pear, I used a Chinese pear, since that’s what my mother had on hand. (“We have 2 pears.” “Pair of what?” “A pair of pears.”) Also, instead of making a balsamic vinaigrette, I made a raspberry vinaigrette. Both are good anyway.
The main course was, as I said, the tomato pesto fettuccine with seared steak. I substituted thyme for rosemary (because rosemary is awesome), and I didn’t use lemon zest (because my mother doesn’t have a microplane). I also increased the tomato to cream ratio to 1:1, for a creamier taste. It kinda worked.
I tried making the pesto in a blender, partly because my mother doesn’t have a food processor, but mostly because last time I said I would. As it turns out, blenders are better for liquid things, like smoothies, and less good for pasty things like pestos. (Either that or my mother’s blender is no good.) Eventually, I was able to get the tomatoes nice and blended, but the garlic and rosemary were still in large chunks. Next time, I should mince them before adding them to the tomatoes, regardless of how I blend or process the tomatoes.
The other change was the local Safeway didn’t have any top loin. (But they still had ribeye, New York strip, porterhouse, tenderloin, etc.) I settled on a sirloin, thinking that was good enough. As it turns out, it isn’t. If all you do is spice rub and sear a sirloin, it’s still fairly tough and chewy. That and, the grill attachment on my mother’s stove doesn’t have the output to cook anything other than the surface of the sirloin, so the meat didn’t sear very deep. Next time, I’m going to have to go with ribeye or better. Or possibly sear for a longer time. Or finish in the oven. Or some combination of the above.
The presentation was much better this time, though, since I didn’t toss the pasta in the sauce.